“One morning, a resident did a dance, then I did a dance. She said, “Okay, you know the dance, now you can go on vacation with me.” I enjoy my job to the fullest. I find it so fulfilling.
I moved here from Edmonton in late December to be closer to my daughter, who is fighting cancer. I had worked in Assisted Living for a long time. My job orientation just finished. I have a great team here. I am impressed. We work really well together. We put our heads together and get things done.
Each day, I come to work and we have our temperatures taken. We do our morning huddle, now six feet apart in an open area. After that, I get residents ready for breakfast and give assistance to those who need help eating. Then I help residents bathe, and later we do lunchtime.
We have to be very careful now: hand-washing, of course; way more changing of PPEs between each and every resident. We see so many people that we are changing PPE a lot. The workload is a bit heavy. You can spend a lot of time with one resident, depending on what they are going through.
The pandemic is in the back of your mind. It’s a challenge. It’s putting a lot of pressure on people. We are even careful in our breakroom, only three of us in there at a time.
My daughter has kids. I look at them and get really worried. They are so bright and beautiful. My one granddaughter is putting a bunch of colours in her hair. We’re going to get through this. I know that we will, but I don’t think it’s going to be today or tomorrow.
People are good, generally. I have come to that conclusion. We have to support each other. We have to work, not only on the job site, but the people of the world need to come together and support each other in every way possible.”
- Marcia, Care Aide, part of the health care team